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After protests on campus, Srinagar NIT closes for early winter break
The academic activities were either suspended or curtailed in few other colleges of the Valley to prevent escalation of the tensions after protests there as well
The National Institute of Technology, Srinagar was closed for winter break early on Thursday owing to the tension and protests triggered inside the institute on Tuesday after a student allegedly shared a “derogatory” video over Islam on social media.
The academic activities were either suspended or curtailed in few other colleges of the Valley to prevent escalation of the tensions after protests there as well.
Police had on Wednesday booked the non-local NIT student for promoting religious enmity between communities for allegedly sharing the “derogatory “video. NIT authorities have asked the students to vacate hostels as well.
“Pursuant to declaration of winter vacation for students with effect from November 30…, all hostel boarders (boys and girls) are instructed to vacate the hostels with immediate effect,” said a circular by dean students welfare on Thursday.
Usually, the institute would break for winter vacation from mid-December. The academic activity inside the campus was suspended on Wednesday following protests by the students on Tuesday evening after the aforementioned video was shared. The university’s registrar had written to police that prompted the FIR against the student .
An FIRunder sections 295-A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion) and 153 (wantonly giving provocation, with intent to cause riot) of the Indian Penal Code was registered against the student.
After Wednesday’s protests the authorities suspended classes at Islamia College of Science and Commerce and curtailed the number of lectures at Amar Singh College.
“Classwork of all the semesters and internal examinations shall remain off on November 30 and will be rescheduled from December 1. However, backlog examinations of third semester shall be conducted as per schedule,” a communication by Islamia College said.
A teacher of Amar Singh College said that the classes were curtailed so that fewer students would be present on campus.
A student of Vishwa Bharti College in Rainawari said that their classes were suspended and many of them were sent back by the authorities fearing protests.
ADGP (law-and-order) chairs security review meet
In view of the protests over the past couple of days, Srinagar additional director general of police (ADHP law-and-order) chaired a joint security meeting here on Thursday.
Police said that to review the situation, ADGP Vijay Kumar chaired a meeting of police, CAPF and Intelligence wings in Police Control Room.
“ADGP was briefed by the officers about the chronology of events happened during past couple of days vis-a-vis handling of these issues as per the merits and law by police,” a police spokesperson said, adding that ADGP appreciated law enforcing agencies for their timely action and praised the society for showing maturity while reacting to the issue.
